The Jobless Rate for People Like You
 

here's an interactive graph so you can see where your demographic lands in the job market:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...ent-lines.html


here's a state-by-state unemployment rate using the numbers from September (2009):
http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lis..._unemployment/

you can also just Google [unemployment rate] [county, state] and it'll bring up a chart using numbers from as recent as 2 months prior (not seasonally adjusted.) you can get more raw data from the bureau of labor statistics, but it's tedious to navigate and looks like this: http://www.bls.gov/web/cpseea13.pdf

i think 44-46% of 16-to 24-year-olds are unemployed. people who enter the job market during a slump end up earning a lot less over time. these are the people who are supposed to be paying for social security benefits and stuff in the future.

i wonder what % of people strongly like charts and graphs.

Only 3.6% for my demographic. Hmm, I wonder if I should be happy or sad looking at that statistic, seeing as I've been unemployed since January...

13.8% for me. :(

I know it's not possible to keep it as I am moving across the country, but seeing the numbers makes me feel a little guilty about quitting my job. :o

ETA: Especially when I'm moving to a state where apparently almost half the people are unemployed. Great.

It's good to be a college educated white woman aged 25 to 44 :D

For my group, its 6.7%.

25.8%... hot damn.

Hm the rest of my family, though, is between 6% and 7%, though.

8.3% for black men ages 25 to 44 with a college degree.

I wonder what the rates are for those who have advanced degrees? The ones who can't find a top tier job in their field but are overqualified for everything else? That's a huge thing among my classmates right now. Nearly everyone who just graduated in May are unemployed because there are no jobs available except retail/holiday work and they keep getting shut out of those because they have Master's degrees.

Isn't it, typically?

That last part is interesting. I'm being encouraged to pursue my master's while its still a "recession" so ill be competitive when we come out this slump. Seems like the opposite to me-getting a degree would put me in the pool of those looking for better paying work and can't find it.

Were you reading the rank as the number of people who were unemployed? Because Michigan is the highest unemployment at 9.6% (that was in September, it's over 10 now) and that's nowhere near half. (Although, it feels like about half of our households have been affected somehow).

One of the difficult things about the unemployment rate is that it doesn't count people who 1) Took early retirement buyouts and don't collect unemployment, 2) the underemployed.. people who once held professional jobs who are working retail, etc. now or have had their hours reduced or 3) those whose unemployment benefits have expired or who were never eligible for it in the first place.

Yeah, that's the theory. We'll be super competitive when this thing is over, but no one took into account those who graduate while we're still in it. Oh well, poked my head out and it's still a mess, so I'll just pop back in for another degree and see how it is when I come out again. :p
Oh yes, I thought those were percentages. :o Thanks, it's not quite the crisis situation I imagined.

My husband and I are both employed and are grateful to have jobs. However, we would like to move within our field and that is something that we are not able to do right now. We both work as public school teachers and we both teach in a district that is 45+ miles from our home. Both of us tried to get teaching positions in districts that are closer to our home last year, and it wasn't happening. I don't see it happening either this year. In addition to getting hired closer to my home, I would like to move out of the classroom into a position as a school librarian. I know many teachers who would like to move into positions as counselors or administrators, and this economy is making it tough to do that.

I hate when people say that you are "over-qualified" for a job. When I first graduated from Penn State, I was worried about the economy. I put in applications everywhere. I even applied at a local factory. The guy interviewing me looked at me like I was nuts as he said, "You realize this is not for any management position. This is factory work." I nodded my head in agreement that I understood. He then proceeded to run down my list of accomplishments and asked me why I would want to work there when I was "clearly over-qualified" for the jobs he could offer me. I explained that I was not above working in a factory. Needless to say, I was not offered the job.

There have been other times that I have been told I was over-qualified. I've learned that if you are really concerned you won't get the job based on being "over-qualified" you are better off "omitting" that you have a Masters degree. Once I did that, I had job offers all over the place.

This economy sucks. Sometimes you have to play the numbers game. I am def. going to play down my education if I choose to get a certain retail job over the summer break while doing unpaid internships. It sucks that you have to do that.

3.6% for mine.:)

You know, I never thought of that, thanks. I may do that if it comes to it.

When I worked at B&N, one of my fellow cashiers had a Ph.D. in Biochemistry. Everyday, someone else would ask her "What the heck are you doing here???" and the answer was always the same. "I can't find a job anywhere else."

Being overqualified does not mean that you think you're "above" certain work. Or, more accurately, above the people who do certain work because that's what many people mean when they say "you're not above doing this."

Many of us wouldn't have invested in graduate degrees if we were going to end up doing something a high school graduate could do. It doesn't mean we won't do it if there is absolutely nothing else available and an unemployment check is little help. It means that it is disappointing to invest so much time and money in something that we'll be overworked and underpaid doing. In addition to regular bills and "life stuff," people have tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans to repay. And it isn't exciting to work 100 times harder than you should be working for your education level and making 60K less than you should be making.

****************

I agree with the rest of als463's post.

I advise people in many fields to be on the job market even if they have a job (within or outside of your career). This is particularly the case if your company is experiencing financial strife. Celebrate that you still have a job and keep your resume` out there just in case. In the job market, have a resume` for each line of work. All of your graduate degrees and so forth will go on the resume` that you send out for your career oriented jobs. Your skilled labor qualifications and so forth will go on the resume` for the full time or part time jobs that will tie you over until you get what YOU consider to be a "desired job." Thank God for work because it is money but it is silly to believe that everyone has to be thrilled to have ANY job with no hopes for something that THEY consider better. Whatever better means to them.

Tactics like this one are much needed these days. Gotta get creative (and realistic).

What do you mean? Are you being snarky, again? It is true that sometimes, depending upon the job you are looking at, you need to omit how much education you have. The same way people get insulted if you tell them they have too little education (or not enough skill), it is insulting to tell someone who has worked their butt off to get an education that they are "too educated" for a job in this economy.

I guess some people try to rationalize and say that the less educated person is more likely to stick around because they don't have many other places to go. The only issue with that is that some of those people who have no other place to go don't always have the work ethic many employers want. If they did, they would not have limited themselves on various levels. You don't need a college education to be hard working, but in this day and age, there really is no excuse for people in their 20's and below to not be considering college (in my eyes).

I hate to say it this way, and this is what I told my little brother:
An Associate's degree is now the equivalent of a High School Diploma,
A Bachelor's degree is now the equivalent of an Associate's degree,
A Master's is the equivalent of a Bachelor's degree...and so on...

I'm not downgrading anyone's education (because I have a Masters and I recognize that it seems many other people in my field do, as well), I'm just saying the way the job market is-everyone is going back to school.

LOL. I think she meant exactly what she typed.

ETA: After reading this post, I realize what you meant by "I hate it when people say you are overqualified." I thought you meant that you hate it when people say THEY are overqualified. You meant that you hate it when employers tell you that. LOL. I've had that happen a couple of times. Thank God because I really shouldn't have been working at those places.

ETA2:
This isn't completely accurate, though. There are fields/industries and employers where a masters is still a masters and a doctorate is still a doctorate. The point of downplaying your education sometimes is to be marketable outside of those industries and employers. That's why I recommend people have 2 resumes.

You bring up a really great point. Thank you for stating that. I should have said that in some fields (such as Liberal Arts, for the most part) it works that way. I have friends who are Science and Engineering majors. I feel as though in certain fields like those, my rationale does not necessarily work. In some other fields (not all-and I should have clarified) that idea of a degree not holding as much weight as it used to, still applies.

A job seeker once told me his reaction when he's told that he's too overqualified and will leave as soon as a better option comes along. He tells the employer that he may very well be more educated/experienced than other applicants, but that his qualifications only mean that the employer will have to spend less time and money training him. Apparently, he also asks employers if they would prefer to have the ideal candidate for 6 months or a mediocre candidate for 12. I don't imagine that part goes over too well. As far as I know this job seeker is still looking for a job.

And, no, I wasn't being snarky. You didn't say anything snark-worthy here.

Absolutely.

Yeah, this all goes back to having more than one resume` (or more than one way to articulate your qualifications) and doing a "career job search" and "joblessness job search."

Depending on the job and the overqualification, there aren't too many employers that will fall for that trick across the board. LOL. That may work more for overqualified people seeking professional and managerial positions where the skills, education and income levels are more comparable.

Employers (who know how to make profit--make more than you pay) know that having an overqualified person (especially in terms of education and previous salary) means that this person is often not trained in the ins and outs of the lower tasks. For instance, someone with an MBA doesn't automatically know how to be a floor person or cashier at TJ Maxx. That person will most likely need more training than someone with the experience and who doesn't have the education. Moreover, the person with an MBA may overthink a lot of the more mundane tasks and see herself/himself as being on the same or higher playing field as the managers and higher ups. This leads to more questioning of company policies and practices, demands for higher pay if the person stays long enough, and almost definitely high employee turnover when a more career oriented job comes along.

Thus is the nature of profit.

What if, when they say you are overqualified, you give an indication that, while you might be overqualified for this particular position, you are certain there are positions that you could move into within the company over time and you'd like to get to know how the company works so that when those positions arise, you would have more knowledge about whole operations than an outside candidate? I would think this would be part of doing your research because you could find out whether there is a management training type of program with this company, etc. It could let someone know that, although this isn't your ideal final career stop, you have an interest in THAT particular company and moving up within that company rather than jumping ship at your next opportunity.

I think I'd rather hear that if I was interviewing somebody.

DH and I had lunch with my in-laws today. They told me that they are proud to be able to answer the question, "How are your son and DIL doing?" with "They're employed." A lot of their friends can't say that about their children and children-in-law.

Even so, I could use another client or three. (Anyone need a web site? ;) )

"My son is a doctor."
"My son is a lawyer."
"My son is employed. So there." :p